All Aboard!! And ready to head to Tulare for a run with the USAC/West Coast 360's. Taking the Co-pilot's seat on the way up north was Jimmy. It was great to have Jimmy and Tom (Gunk) traveling with us up north. Not able to make the trip due to the nasty word, Work, was Dave, Jim & Rich.... JC, the owner of the power plant under the hood was supposed to come too, but the 6 am wake up call found him feeling under the weather and he too missed the trip.
You can always tell when you arrive in Tulare, as the miles and miles around that area is dairy or farm land....and trust me... unless you have a sreall really snuffy nose, you reallly know when you have arrived!! Yikes!!!!
A pleasant productive lunch meeting with George, "The Ram-Bull" guy discussing plans for the upcoming 2105 season at the Black Bear Inn. Had never been to that restaurant before and for those of you that know me, well, I kind of have a fascination with black and white checkered - anything.... the plates were trimmed in checkers, with paw rpints running across them... heap, paws, not Moose's hoofs or this gals purse would of been stuffed with plates!!!!
On tap for the evening's show was The Cotton Classic. King Of The West winged sprints and the USAC/360 cars. This only being the 2nd event for Jake in the 360 - the team kept reminding itself that it was there, to learn... since that worked out for the JC Performance 360 in it's debut, as jake Won. There was concern about qualifying, 30 Wing cars would take to the track first...drying the surface even more then it already was. Then 16 non wing cars would go out before Jake too. That's a bunch of cars poundng the surface and makeing it drier and drier. After saving what coujld of been a disasterous 1st lap, Jake backed it up with 2nd quick time! 2 more cars to go -- and out comes Ryan Bernal ( this guy has been on a terror, winning almsot every 360 race that he has entered ) and yeap, he was a bit faster... so, qualifying in the books... Jake 2nd quick. Lining up 6th in the 2nd Heat witht he task before him to finish in the top 4 -- Jake stepped up to that with no issue, brining the Moosemobile home in 2nd.
Main Event rolls off and a tricky, dry, slippery track. After watching the wing B main and seeing many of those pros bouncing off the walls as they slid around nervous nelly over here was on pins and needles for the upcoming 30 laps. ( ok, most of you, say...what's new about that??) Guiding the 92 Moosemobile Jake was running smooth and on a mission. Moves up to 3rd... and jumps the cushion in Turn 1 ... ( it was Turn 1 that was biting and swallowing up so many cars ) but miraculously Jake saved it, and lost only 1 spot. Settleing back in and dueling it out with Faria - those 2 put on a show... and in 3 and 4 Jake got by him!!! 3rd!!! BUt just seconds before the pass that Turn 1 wall grabbed Bud Kaeding bringing out the yellow, no complete lap in and that put Jake back to 4th. WIth only a handful of laps tp gp, Jake run smooth and steady and held on for a 4th place finish. Up front, as in his Championship style was Ryan Bernal again for the win, Ensign 2nd, Faria JR for 3rd. Congrats to Ryan on another incredible drive!!!
King of the West wings saw McFadden from Australia in the Kaeding backed #4.
11:26 and on the road to home. The 2 Sleeping Beauty's of JImmy and Gunk were out before even getting on the freeway!!! Tom got everyone home safe and sound about 2:20...
Now it's time to prep and gear up for the month of November. That kicks off with the 360 show at The Oval Nationals Thursday Nov 6th. 2 days of the 410 portion of the Ovals. Hurry up clean up and prep for Canyon for the 410 show at Canyon Nov. 13 & 14th.... last show of the year in the books is Western World Nov 20th. AND then this 2014 season will be in the books.
USAC WEST COAST “SPECIAL EVENT” SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 11, 2014 – Tulare, California – Thunderbowl Raceway – “Cotton Classic”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-15.500; 2. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-15.718; 3. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-15.763; 4. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Finkenbinder-15.776; 5. Danny Faria Jr., 2, Bowman-15.855; 6. Austin Liggett, 83, Liggett-15.862; 7. Bud Kaeding, 29, Bowman-15.868; 8. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-15.929; 9. Trey Marcham, 73, Ford-16,038; 10. Max Adams, 5X, Adams-16.057; 11. Kolby Araki, 30K, Araki-16.386; 12. Koen Shaw, 88K, Shaw-16.553; 13. Trent Carter, 13, Carter-16.604; 14. Matt Day, 97, Day-16.641; 15. Jeff Sibley, 42N, Sibley-16.713; 16. Greg Higginbotham, 11, Hogginbotham-16.796; 17. Jeff Bothelo, 14X, Bothelo-16.939; 18. Kyler Shaw, 92K, Shaw-17.274.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bernal, 2. Kaeding, 3. Ensign, 4. Carter, 5. Higginbotham, 6. Adams. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. J.Vander Weerd, 2. Faria, 3. R.Vander Weerd, 4. Botelho, 5. Araki. 6. Day. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Marcham, 2. Swanson, 3. Liggett, 4. Ky.Shaw, 5. Ko.Shaw, 6. Sibley. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Geoff Ensign, 3. Danny Faria Jr., 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Richard Vander Weerd, 6. Jace Vander Weerd, 7. Max Adams, 8. Trey Marcham, 9. Kyler Shaw, 10. Kolby Araki, 11. Jeff Sibley, 12. Koen Shaw, 13. Jeff Bothelo, 14. Matt Day, 15. Trent Carter, 16. Bud Kaeding, 17. Austin Liggett, 18. Greg Higginbotham. NT